Integrating External Gift Cards with Shopify Checkout – Is This Possible?

Extensions
1

Hi everyone,

My team is developing a gift card service for merchants without existing gift card systems, allowing them to offer gift cards both in-store and online. We’re exploring integration with Shopify, specifically for merchants using another in-store POS system but who also run an online store on Shopify.

Our goal is to allow customers to redeem our external gift cards (not Shopify-issued) at checkout on Shopify stores. Here’s the flow we’re aiming for:

  1. The customer enters our gift card code at checkout.
  2. The system communicates with our API to validate the gift card balance.
  3. Based on the balance, a discount is applied to the cart.
  4. After the transaction, our system is notified to update the card balance.

I understand Shopify checkout UI extensions are available for Shopify Plus users. Would this flow work using such an extension (performing external API calls and applying discounts)? If not, is there an alternative method for this integration?

Also, can someone confirm if this type of integration would be possible on a standard Shopify plan, or is it limited to Shopify Plus?

Thanks for your help!

2

You could take a look at this tutorial for Building a redeemable payment extension.

Also, can someone confirm if this type of integration would be possible on a standard Shopify plan, or is it limited to Shopify Plus?

Checkout ui extensions that render during the checkout process require a Shopify Plus plan, so it would not be available to a standard plan shop.

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